Unrequited Love
by whitetiger1
Summary: Ron likes Hermione; Malfoy likes Hermione. Which one will end up being her b/f? (Rated PG for mild language)


Unrequited Love  
  
  
  
Chapter One  
  
  
  
It was your typical two-days-before-exams breakfast at the Gryffindor table. Everyone was chattering happily and talking about how bad the exams would be and if they would pass or not. But, as usual, Hermione was poring over her textbooks and trying to eat her oatmeal at the same time. She kept on dropping the oatmeal on her book and had to wipe it off with her robes.  
  
"Oh, there goes another fine," she sighed as her eyes scanned Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them. "I probably owe the library fifty Knuts by now."  
  
"Hermione, get a grip!" Ron said. "Pretty soon, if you keep on studying, your head's going to explode! Besides, you've read that book three times already. I think you're wearing the words out of it."  
  
"Be quiet, Ron," she snapped. "We have our OWLs soon and I wouldn't want to fail."  
  
" 'And I wouldn't want to fail'. Oh, get a life."  
  
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you want to fail."  
  
"No, I don't want to be stuck in fifth year forever. Seesh!"  
  
Ron rolled his eyes at Harry in a teasing sort of way. He acted as though he enjoyed teasing Hermione about studying too much. But actually, on the inside, he secretly had a major crush on Hermione and he was too shy to tell her his true feelings for her. But it was useless since she had a crush on lousy Viktor Krum and she would probably laugh in his face if he told her. So, he kept it a secret.  
  
After they finished eating, Ron and Harry got their books and rushed to Prof. Trelawney's class. Prof. Trelawney's room was hot and stuffy and thick with the smell of perfume as usual, which made the boys in the room feel drowsy. "Today," Prof. Trelawney said in her mysterious voice, "we will be learning about love omens and how to tell if you are in love."  
  
"Aw, what a phony," Ron whispered to Harry. "There's no way in hell I love someone." But inside, he was screaming, "WHAT IF SHE FINDS OUT! NO!" He started sweating and his heartbeat started racing. "What's wrong, Ron?" Harry asked him.  
  
"Oh, n-nothing," he said. "It's just a-a little warm in here, that's all." He made a weak smile and wiped the sweat off his forehead.  
  
"All right, who's first?" Trelawney asked them. "Why not we start with Mr. Weasley?"  
  
"Er…" Ron said, starting to feel as though he were going to faint.  
  
"Mr. Weasley, step forward please."  
  
What could he do? He would look stupid if he didn't, so he went up to Prof. Trelawney's desk. She started to do a palm reading like muggle fortune tellers would do. "Ah," she said after a few minutes. "Looks like you have a secretive love for someone…"  
  
Lavender and the other girls leaned forward curiously while Ron stood there nervously. Inside of him, he was yelling, "Let go of my hand, woman! God, why me? Why??"  
  
"It looks like this young woman," Trelawney continued, "this lucky young woman, I might add, is in your grade and in your House, too, and, oh let me see closer. Why, the girl's name is—"  
  
Before she could say anything else, Ron had stupidly grabbed a cup of tea on her desk and splashed it in her face. Harry, Neville, and the rest of the boys started laughing uncontrollably, while the girls gasped in shock. Trelawney blinked, tea dripping off her long eyelashes and running down her large glasses.  
  
"Mr. Weasley, you'll be having detention this evening," she said furiously. "Go sit—now!"  
  
"What did you do that for, Ron?" Harry asked him as he sat down on the pouf beside him.  
  
"What do you think I did it for?" he whispered. "The woman was about to say who I have a crush on!"  
  
"Calm down, seesh!" Harry said. "It's not like you have a crush on Angelina or Hermione."  
  
"Haha, very funny, Harry," Ron said sarcastically although his heart stopped when Harry had said Hermione's name.  
  
  
  
Chapter 2  
  
  
  
No one knew it, but there was someone else at Hogwarts who also liked Hermione. And that person was Malfoy. Sure, he acted like he hated her guts and he wouldn't care if she was hit by a comet and instantly died, but he had loved her since their first year. He didn't show it because he was in Slytherin and she was in Gryffindor and his reputation would be ruined if anyone found out.  
  
The exams were over, which was a relief to everyone. That afternoon, all the students spent their time on school grounds by the lake, throwing pieces of bread and crackers to the giant squid that lived in it.  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together, throwing bread crumbs and watching as a tentacle would reach up and grab the bread. "I'm still worried about my results," Hermione said nervously. "I think I got question 46-D wrong on Prof. McGonagall's exam. Oh, and I think it was on—"  
  
"Shut up already!" Ron said. "Seesh, I think you're hurting the squid's ears!"  
  
"Oh, haha," she said sarcastically. "If I didn't know better, Ron, I'd say you hate me."  
  
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."  
  
"Or maybe you like me."  
  
"Sorry, I'm unable to answer you at the moment. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when you have an IQ below room temperature."  
  
"You are such a buffoon."  
  
"Miss Granger," Prof. Dumbledore said, coming up to them. "I just received an owl with a message for you. Would you come to my office, please?" Hermione looked confused for a moment and then followed Dumbledore up to the castle.  
  
"I wonder what's up?" Harry wondered.  
  
"I dunno," Ron said, looking up at Hermione and Dumbledore walking up to the castle.  
  
  
  
Chapter 3  
  
  
  
Ron woke up in the middle of the night. Something was wrong; he could feel it. He got up and crept across the room and looked out the window that overlooked the lake. He saw someone walking alongside the lake.  
  
"Hey, Harry!" he whispered, to Harry, who was asleep in his bed. "Can I borrow your invisibility cloak?"  
  
"Yeah, sure, whatever…" Harry groaned, still asleep. "I'll be up in a minute, Aunt Petunia…" He dozed off and started to sleep again.  
  
Ron quietly opened Harry's trunk at the foot of his bed. He rummaged through his robes and clothes and finally found the cloak. He slipped in on, tiptoed quietly out of the room, and went through the common room. He went out into the hallway, shutting the portrait of the Fat Lady against the hole in the wall. She was snoozing softly in her picture frame as Ron walked down the hallway.  
  
Before he turned around the corner, he heard someone coming. He looked around the corner and saw Malfoy walking down the hallway, still in his bathrobe and carrying a candlestick. "Who's there?" Malfoy asked, shining the light down the hallway. He went down the hallway in the direction Ron wanted to go.  
  
Ron made sure that Malfoy was out of seeing or hearing range before he went out the castle door. He walked through the lawn and down to the lake. Then he finally saw who was by the lake—Hermione.  
  
She was sitting on the ground, sobbing softly. Ron pulled off the cloak and whispered, "Hermione, is that you?" he asked. Hermione turned around and gasped. "Ron, what are you doing out here?"  
  
"Same thing I was gonna ask you. What's wrong?"  
  
"N—nothing. No, Ron, oh…" she threw her arms around him and started to cry. "When Dumbledore and I went to the office today, he had an owl for me. My mum's been in a car accident."  
  
"I'm so sorry, Hermione," Ron said, not knowing what he should do now that her arms were around him. "Would you like to walk around the lake?"  
  
"Okay, sure," Hermione said, wiping her tears off with the back of her hand. They walked around the lake and Hermione told him all about what the letter the owl had given them had said. "The doctors say that she was hurt pretty badly. Her leg is broken and they think she's broken a few of her ribs."  
  
"I wish I could do something to help you feel better," Ron said.  
  
"You're doing enough just being with me right now. You don't know how I feel now." She slipped her hand into his and she rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. "I just feel so terrible about now being back in London with her."  
  
As they kept on walking, they didn't notice that Malfoy was following them, creeping along through the bushes. He was so jealous that Ron was getting to hold Hermione's hand and was comforting her. We'll just see how long this happy moment lasts, he thought to himself.  
  
"Er…Hermione," Ron said, uneasily, not sure if he should tell her his secret or not. He thought that right now would be the perfect time to tell her his true feelings.  
  
"What is it, Ron?"  
  
"Well, I have something I need to tell you. You see—um, I love you, Hermione. I've loved you ever since we first met, but I've been too shy to tell you. You're going to laugh in my face now, aren't you?"  
  
"No, Ron, I have a confession to make, too. You see, I love you, too."  
  
"But what about Krum?"  
  
"Krum? Krum, Shmum. That was just to hide it even more that I liked you."  
  
Ron and Hermione looked at each other for a moment. They started to lean forward, ready to kiss, when—  
  
"RON, WATCH OUT!"  
  
Malfoy ran out of the bushes and pushed Ron into the lake. Hermione stood, screaming. "Hermione," Malfoy said, grabbing her hands, "I love you! I have ever since I met you!" He started to lean forward, ready to kiss her.  
  
Instead, Hermione slapped Malfoy across the face and yelled, "You maggot!" With that, she grabbed onto Malfoy's arm and swung him into the lake.  
  
"Help!" he yelled. "Help! I don't know how to swim! Mommy, help me! Aargh!" A large tentacle grabbed him around the waist and slung him through the air and onto the ground. Ron quickly swam across the lake and landed on the ground, laughing.  
  
"Bloody hell!" he said, sputtering out water. "That was some freaky ride!"  
  
"Let's get outta here before Filch catches us," Hermione said, pulling him up. "You still have the invisibility cloak?"  
  
"Yep, let's go."  
  
"What about Malfoy?"  
  
"Aw, let the maggot take a nap. Probably knocked him out, if we're lucky."  
  
As soon as they gave the Fat Lady the password ("Flipper-snappers") and got back to the common room, Ron started a fire in the fireplace and they started to dry themselves off. "So, are we going to tell anyone?" Hermione asked Ron. "Are we going to let them know that we're boyfriend and girlfriend now?"  
  
"Nah," Ron said, wringing out his shirt. "Let's just get back to our rooms before someone catches us down here."  
  
"Oh, Ron," Hermione said before they went up the stairs, "please take a bath. You smell like seaweed."  
  
"Seesh, all right, I'll take one in the morning," Ron said. "Good-night, Hermione."  
  
"Good-night, Ron."  
  
"Hey, wait a second." Before Hermione went up the stairs to the girls' tower, Ron gave her a kiss on the cheek. Hermione blushed cherry red and went up the stairs to the tower. As Ron changed into a different pair of pajamas, he felt much better that he had finally told Hermione how he felt about her. And he even kissed her good-night.  
  
I can get used to this, he thought happily. 


End file.
